Are there any working instances of Invidious left? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 days ago by zdhzm2pgp@lemmy.ml to c/opensource@lemmy.ml

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I really hope the answer is "yes," but gosh-darned if I can find one. The FreeTube app still works as long as my VPN is off, but as for Invidious . . . (also, sorry if this has already been covered earlier).

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[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 5 hours ago

Yes. Sending it now by PM to not make things too easy for YouTube. Even it requires a few tries, though.

[-] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 2 points 20 hours ago

I use invidious to search, copy the link, and use yt-dlp to download the video. You can get 1080p that way. If I wasn't lazy, I would write a script

[-] Amaterasu@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Is there a good guide to self host?

[-] deathbird@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

I've been using Grayjay and it seems to be a good front end for YouTube.

[-] christos@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago

yt-dlp works, magic-tape works, too, if you don't mind terminal interface.

[-] ElcaineVolta@kbin.melroy.org 5 points 2 days ago

a command line yt client, hell yes.

[-] xela@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

The below website provides the answer to your question: https://redirect.invidious.io/

[-] gravitywell@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 days ago

My piped instance is still working https://piped.gravitywell.xyz

[-] gaspar_petersen@programming.dev 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Freetube on desktop, NewPipe on smartphone. And I have no problems with VPNs on both devices!

[-] lemming741@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

My self hosted instance works great

[-] Substance_P@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

I've been trying for weeks. Sometimes, using a random IP address with Proton VPN works for a few hours, but eventually, Freetube (or YouTube) seems to catch on and shuts me down. Gravitywell mentioned a piped instance, which was great but only worked for a minute or two for me. I think the days of being anonymous on YouTube are over—time to move on if privacy is important to you.

[-] sntx@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

It's gotten to a point where I get "Sign-In to confirm you're not a bot" on my residential ip(s).

Which I won't, therefore no yt for me.

Luckily I've got better and more entertaining things to do.

[-] kixik@lemmy.ml 10 points 3 days ago

What works for me is freetube on desktop, and tubular/newpipe on AOSP.

[-] kixik@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Ups, I just got to enjoy piped and in particular pipeline on gnu+linux and libretube on AOSP.

Pipeline in particular allows to totally avoid electron (freetube), and in both cases the piped instance is the one communicating with youtube, not me, :) And both applications support sponsorblock (tubular does, but newpipe doesn't). But not talking directly to youtube is a win. Did I mention dropping another electron app, :) ?

But... I installed pipeline from AUR, because I don't like flatpak... Not sure if other user repos offer it as well...

[-] vortexal@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 days ago

I don't think so, YouTube's new method for blocking third party clients seems to be difficult to work around. I have the Linux version of the NewPipe app and that seems to be working but I don't use VPNs, so I don't know if that would work for you.

[-] toth_peter@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

NewPipe works for me on Android

[-] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 days ago

It stopped working for me recently. It'll play the first 5 seconds or so of the video and then just freeze up.

[-] DragonsInARoom@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

Not really at this point

[-] Deckweiss@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

I use freetube and grayjay

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago

I'd like to know if any of these frontends work with Mullvad VPN, because all the Mullvad servers I've tried have been blocked. Even on youtube.com I'm getting throttled to the point where all videos are 360p. Ridiculous, but I'm not turning my VPN off just for YouTube videos.

[-] scrooge101@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

For me it usually works to change server/country if a video is not working. Sometimes it takes 2-3 tries, and it is annoying.

[-] zdhzm2pgp@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah, same here! I have to turn off Mullvad when watching FreeTube which is definitely annoying.

[-] communism@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I was also using FreeTube when Mullvad got blocked. Mullvad's South African servers worked for me for a while but they're now blocked too, and I've tried a bunch of countries and all blocked. Annoyingly even yt-dlp is blocked with Mullvad on now, so I can't even use that to watch YouTube.

[-] a@91268476.xyz 6 points 3 days ago

@zdhzm2pgp@lemmy.ml same here. I stopped fighting via invidious and sadly I'm stuck with freetube, which is great, but I'd prefer a server side alternative

[-] comfy@lemmy.ml 5 points 3 days ago

I still use Invidious and Piped for searches and looking at comments, but they are currently broken (as far as I've seen).

[-] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 4 points 3 days ago

I use FreeTube too and none Invidious instance work for me. So Local API only right now.

[-] zdhzm2pgp@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

That reminds me, I think I remember reading on the FreeTube page that they recommended using a VPN with it (this was before the current issues with Mullvad); anyone know why? Are FreeTube users in any danger of being hunted down by Sundar Pichai & co.?

[-] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

the reason might be is that freetube can only proxy your usage over a server when using invidious, otherwise it needs to connect to youtube directly, making it possible for them to track you by IP (and by logged in users using yt from the same IP)